Old Wounds
by TimidIzzy
Summary: Stephanie Brown still had difficulties getting over the trust issues brought on through her ex-boyfriend, Tim Drake. But when given the opportunity to forgive him and work together, she might be able to push past those feelings. Name inspired by The New Batman Adventures episode of the same name. TIM/STEPH SHIP
1. Chapter 1

"Our story begins on one, cold, winter morning." _Stephanie Brown, EX-Girl Wonder, EX-Spoiler, CURRENT Batgirl. She sits at the breakfast table with her unsuspecting mom. How was she so good at keeping her secret? Years of practice._ Stephanie shoved a forkful of syrupy waffles in her mouth and glanced upward to her mother, her expression refusing to reveal her wandering, narrative thoughts.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie's mother, Crystal Brown, stood beside the table her daughter sat at, Stephanie's favorite purple coffee mug nuzzled between her hands.

"Narrating, Mother. The morning was not quite like any other, and our hero knew it might not end well for her."

"Stephanie, is this about your exam today?" She placed the coffee mug on the table next to Steph's plate, taking a step back to prepare a mug for herself.

"It might be." The blonde swallowed the mouthful of waffles and took a gulp of coffee. "I haven't studied."

"I thought you were focusing more on school!"

"Well, I am," her lips stammered to find an excuse. "I hadn't studied because I felt confident! And now that it's too late, I'm panicking." _Such a terrible liar. Even Tim can do better._ Stephanie's heart sank at her own thought. _Well, we know he could lie better, don't we?_

It was an intrusive thought and not a terribly uncommon one. It had been years since she learned Alvin—_Tim_ had been lying to her about his secret identity. Not that she could be surprised, he worked with _the_ secret identity man. Stephanie really couldn't support some of Bruce's ideals, especially the ones that involved pushing others out. She could deal with it if it were _just_ Bruce, but of course he had to shove the ideals onto his kids. Especially Tim.

Stephanie's mind wandering, her eyes scanned up absent-mindedly. They caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall ahead of her, and her frantic hands reached to the edge of the table to push herself up. "Speaking of panic!" Her body jerked itself out of her chair. "Could you put the rest of the coffee in a travel mug for me?" Her words came out in a frantic jumble as she pushed past her chair, running toward the stairs and up to her bedroom.

_Two steps at a time, Steph. Bruce has put you through worse training than getting to school on time._

Stephanie threw on the first shirt she found in her closet, a dark green t-shirt, and put on some jeans. Positioning herself in front of the mirror, she finally ran a brush through her knotted hair. A breath forced itself from her lips as she slipped on a coat and made her way out her bedroom door. Moving down the stairs as fast as she could, she made her way to the kitchen and grabbed the travel mug from her mom's hands. She shoved the rest of her waffles into her mouth, forcing out a 'thank you' through her full mouth, and made her way out the door.

* * *

_Our hero's morning had hit a rocky start, and it was sure to go downhill fast. Will Stephanie be able to salvage this day and ace the exam?_ Her brows furrowed at her own thought. _No.  
_ The lecture hall was empty minus the few students dotted around in random seats. _Maybe I got here on time?_ Stephanie pulled out her phone and took a glance at the time. _No. Guess I'm just one of the few that showed up. _She slid into her chair and placed her bag by her side. Her hand reached to the side of the bag, unzipping it to reveal a relatively empty bag holding only the bare essentials. A few pens, pencils and erasers littered the bottom of the bag next to an eggplant purple spiral notebook and a few crumpled assignments. And of course, Batgirl's uniform had found its way into the bag. She reached her hand in, pulling out her purple spiral notebook. Loose papers of drawings and scrawled writings fell out of the journal and into the bag as she skimmed through to a blank page. She tapped a pencil against her desk until it volunteered a doodle of Batgirl. She was, after all, her own biggest fan.

"Should you really be doing that in the open?"

Stephanie didn't need to look to the voice to recognize who it was. After all, she recognized the voice more than the face. _Tim Drake, EX-boyfriend, EX-Robin, CURRENT Red Robin. __I can't really act surprised that my day threw this__ at me. I already acknowledged it wouldn't get any better._

"You're late, _Draper._" She let a tone of bitterness slip through the name. A sinking feeling in her chest forced her to regret the hostility, but she couldn't help but feel it necessary from time to time. Their entire 'job' revolved around hostility, didn't it? It was an act of defense and she knew it. Not a healthy one, but she was never one to deal with emotions in a healthy manner. Besides, after being told for years that his last name was Draper, why change it now?

"Weren't you late too?" Stephanie finally glanced up to look at him. Tim stood beside the desk next to hers, a black backpack slung over his shoulder. He almost reminded her of what he looked like back when they were younger. He certainly fit the part of a student well. He pulled the backpack off of his shoulder, setting it down beside him and taking a seat in the chair. He began to open his backpack, digging around for any supplies he needed.

"What are you even doing here, Tim?"

"Alvin," the boy corrected her without even glancing up. His eyes seemed focused on finding his utensils. _So, he's undercover? Go figure._ "My dad thought it was time I enrolled."

"What's the real reason?"

"If you want to meet up after the exam, we can talk." _Of course that's not the real reason. _He finally pulled himself away from his backpack, his own journal now sitting on the desk in front of him. A red spiral. _Fitting._ His eyes avoided contact as she watched him open the journal to the first page, a blank page. _So Bruce bought him a new journal for this. Why doesn't the billionaire pay for my school supplies?_

"So, what? You're completely enrolled? On the day of a big exam?"

"Yep."

"Ah." Her eyes pulled away, focusing back on her doodle as her pencil began to mindlessly shade in unnecessary spots. "I imagine this was pretty short notice."

"He sent me in with the enrollment paperwork today. I think Barbara had something to do with my getting in so quickly."

"Well, you are the perfect one. Why wouldn't they take you?" _Tone down the sarcasm, Steph. The world's__**second**__ greatest detective isn't exactly that clueless._

A voice at the head of the lecture hall snapped her attention away from her bickering thoughts. The professor had finally arrived and stepped to the front of the class. _Well, at least I can't be marked tardy if I got here before the professor did. _The few students who arrived began opening their journals, and Stephanie took it as a sign to open to a clean page.

"Here we go," her lips mumbled softly more as a reassurance to herself. She heard the soft sound of Tim exhaling a little harder than usual. A laugh without laughing? Her lips involuntarily smiled and her eyes darted to look at him beside her. Sometimes it was nice having him around.

* * *

_So, here we are._ Stephanie sat on a cold metal bench just outside the school's library. She shoved her hands in her pockets in a pale attempt to keep them warm, though there wasn't much that could warm you during winter in Gotham. Her eyes stared at her feet, unsure of where else to look while she waited. If Tim wanted to talk to her, it was clearly _work-related_.

_Are we over being rude to each other? Have we moved past that? Well, it seems like Tim has. _She couldn't help but feel like she should apologize. There wasn't any reason for her to still hold any resentment towards him. _Except for the lying throughout the entire time we had been together._

"Hey, Steph." Tim sat on the bench next to her, staring at his own feet.

"Tim, can we talk?" Her eyes refused to part from her feet. She didn't know if she could bring herself to look at him.

"I thought that's what I came here for -"

"No, not that. Look, I'm sorry for how I acted inside. If you need my help with anything, I'll contain myself. I promise." From the corner of her eyes, she could see his unwavering expression. He didn't look confused, but she could tell he didn't know what to say. _Maybe I shouldn't have started off with that._

"Look, Stephanie, it's fine. If you want to talk about it later, we can." He paused, choosing his words. "We have grounds to believe there's illegal activity going through the university. Nothing major right now, but Bruce doesn't feel good about it. He sent me here to scout it out."

"Why couldn't he have just asked me?! I _already_ go here!"

"I don't know, Steph. I didn't ask." _Do you ever question him?_ "But what's good is since you already have an insider's perspective, you can help me with this. Is that okay?"

She sat still for a moment, taking in what she heard. Of course it was okay, why would she consider otherwise? She can't focus on being petty when it's about work. She had to be better than that. Her head bobbed in a soft nod.

"I think I can do that," she finally brought her eyes to meet his. They were familiar yet distant, but above all, they were _trusting._ She watched as he smiled, and felt a smile come across her own lips.

"Where should we meet?"

"We could meet here."

He stood, putting his hands into his pockets and nodded.

"Alright, see you tonight."

Stephanie watched as he turned, walking down the sidewalk and turning a corner around the other side of the library. It's been a while since they'd been so close. It had been even longer since she had allowed herself to relax around him. They had history, sure, but she didn't have to focus on how it ended. She didn't have to focus on the lying. It wasn't his fault. No matter how angry she had been, she couldn't ever forget that whenever he was able, he was always there for her every step of the way.


	2. Chapter 2

Gotham seemed so calm at night. Flying above the city or even watching the river, you'd never think about the intense criminal underworld this city housed. And that's where Stephanie sat. Positioned on the roof of the library building for her university, staring at the cars driving by in the city. Besides Batgirl's quiet bickering with Oracle over her comm link, the city lay silent and still. Small flakes of snow dotted the ground, immediately becoming absorbed into the nearby piles. All things considered, it really _was_ a beautiful city.

"Come on, O, you have to know _something,_" Batgirl's voice whined. She had been attempting to pry information from Oracle from the time it took her to leave her house to arrive here. But so far, her attempts have been fruitless. She sat on the edge of the roof, her legs dangling off the side. In one hand she held a cookie which she took small nibbles at. Her mom had baked cookies shortly after dinner time, and despite the fact that Stephanie had already eaten three, she couldn't bring herself to ignore the batch as she snuck out after her mom left for work.

"I already told you, Batgirl. They didn't tell me anything." Oracle's voice sounded short on the other end of the comm link. _Probably tired of me asking._

"Proxy would tell me."

"Proxy knows even less than I do."

Batgirl blew a puff of air out from her lips and leaned back, resting her open palm against the cement roof behind her for support. A cold breeze blew her hair into her face, shooting chill into her cheeks. Every day she grew more and more thankful for the insulation in her suit. _Oracle really is a genius._ Her heels kicked against the wall behind them and she mindlessly hummed a tune as she watched the snow falling to the ground below. A tingle surged through her spine, and she could sense the presence of someone beside her. Her eyes flicked to her side and spotted Red Robin. Somehow before she had even noticed he was there, he had placed himself on the edge beside her, holding two cups of coffee. _God, he really is a lot like Batman. _His eyes met hers as she glanced to him, and he held out a hand, offering the cup of coffee it held.

"You brought coffee?" She reached her hand out, grabbing the cup and bringing it to rest between both gloved hands. Her fingers could almost feel the heat through her gloves.

"I figured we might be up late."

"Ominous, I dig it." She brought the cup to her lips and took a sip, the heat biting at her tongue. "Jesus, this is scalding!"

"It's cold outside," his shoulders slumped into a lazy shrug.

The two sat in silence for a moment, sipping at their coffee. If it weren't for the upgraded suits, it would almost feel like when they were younger again. Spoiler and Robin, sitting on a roof and watching the world pass by. She let a sigh slip from her lips, then offered a smile.

"Alright, so what's going on?"

"Well," he took a sip, taking a second to choose his words, "it's nothing major so far. Crime rates have spiked in students attending this university. More suspensions, expulsions. Some are even taking it to the streets."

"That's why Batman sent you? Because of some punk kids?"

"We suspect it's something bigger."

Batgirl pressed her tongue against the inside of her teeth, her mind recollecting the schoolyard fights she's noticed. It had all seemed a bit uncharacteristic. This was college, not middle school. Fights don't really just break out for no reason. But there was a reason she wasn't one of the detectives in the family. She didn't exactly have the _intuition_ Tim and Bruce had.

"I see where you're coming from. I hadn't really paid attention, but there have definitely been fights between students."

"And that's why I'm here," he sipped at his coffee. "Batman was hoping - " his voice trailed off into silence. He sat, back straightened with concentration. For a moment, he found nothing in the silence. Though waiting for a second longer, Red Robin heard the faint sound of yelling in the distance. He brought himself to his feet, setting the coffee cup on the roof behind him. "I think I found what I'm here for." Batgirl watched, her eyes painting a confused expression against her cowl. She took another bite of cookie, a sip of coffee, and followed his lead, setting both on the roof and pulling herself up.

"It sounds like," she paused, bringing herself to match Red Robin's silence. She held her breath and focused intently, her mind racing with a map of the school. "It's coming from the auditorium." She brought her eyes up to find Red Robin's, though he had disappeared. Turning her head into the direction of the auditorium, she found Red Robin running across the rooftop of the nearest building. It didn't take long for Batgirl to catch up, eventually running past him. _At least I have one thing over him, I know the layout of the school better._ Taking one final leap, her body rolled against the concrete roof of the auditorium. Refusing to pull herself up, she remained crouched to the ground and listened quietly.

"It doesn't sound like it's in the building."

"Is there a basement level?" Red Robin, having caught up, crouched beside her.

"There's a boiler room."

"Then that's where we go." She watched as he brought himself to his feet and jumped down to the ground level. Following his lead, Batgirl grabbed at the edge of the rooftop, sliding her body against it and dropping to the ground below. She followed Red Robin as he walked along the side of the building until his eyes focused on a door. With one cursory glance to Batgirl, he offered a soft nudge on the door, which gave way and opened into the building. The two tiptoed inside, the sounds of shouting growing closer. The soft sounds of their shoes clicking against the floor filled the empty auditorium with echos until they reached the other side. Tim stepped closer to the door, his eyes shifting to meet Stephanie's as he reached into his utility belt, pulling out a throwing disk. His free hand brought a finger to his lips, and he opened the door. Red Robin took the lead, Batgirl following closely behind, and with each step down the stairs, the yells grew louder and louder. He held a defensive form, disk at the ready. As they reached the bottom of the steps, the two found themselves face to face with a group of ten 20-24 year olds cheering in a circle, surrounding two bleeding men throwing punches at each other.

"Oh my God," Batgirl's lips blurted out a loud laugh, effectively catching the attention of everyone in the room. The fighting men slowed to a stop and the only sound to be heard was the blonde girl's laughter. She put her hand on Red Robin's shoulder, barely managing to speak through snickers. "I can't believe it's just a _fight club_!"  
It took all of Red Robin's training to prevent himself from slapping his palm against his forehead.

"I don't seem to recall you two getting an invite."

Batgirl and Red Robin's heads pulled into the direction of the voice, finding a man who seemed to be the leader of the get-together. He took a step closer, his crossed arms threatening to pop the muscles erupting from his biceps. He wore a tight, white long-sleeve top tucked into black cargo pants. But the most distracting aspect of his attire was the cheap, store-bought luchador mask which covered his face. _Guess we weren't the only ones who thought to hide our faces. _Before Batgirl could find a quip, Red Robin took a more direct approach.

"Who are you?"

"Well, that defeats the purpose of the mask, doesn't it?" The man tugged on his mask slightly, his lips teasing a smug smirk.

"End this. Anyone who stays will have the GCPD to deal with," Red Robin set his gaze on the crowd, turning away from the man.

"We have them on speed dial," Batgirl grinned.

The crowd stood, motionless. The silence of the atmosphere betrayed the sweat droplets of the weaker ones hitting the floor. After a moments delay, the group split in half. Some of the less enthusiastic ones scrambled to the staircase, tripping over their own feet as they raced for the door. Batgirl turned her head, watching them run. As the final stragglers made their escape, she turned her attention to the remaining half, snapping her fingers.

"And then there was half."

"Well done," Mr. Luchador clapped his hands together, mocking applause. "I thank you for ridding me of the weaker men."

Batgirl and Red Robin shared a glance. Batgirl jumped past the edge of the staircase, settling herself into the center of the group. Red Robin followed suit, and the two stood surrounded by seven men. As Mr. Luchador laughed, Red Robin took the moment to scan the room. His eyes focused in on every individual man, all of which displaying an expression of anger. As he focused his attention deeper into the room, his eyes caught it. Nudging the girl beside him, he nodded his head in the direction he was looking. Batgirl offered an involuntary grumble and the man in the mask chuckled.

"Oh, so you found our secret? Want to see how well it works?" He nodded his head to the men, who obediently closed in on the two heroes. In an immediate reaction, Batgirl and Red Robin both shifted into a defensive stance, pulling their respective bo staffs out.

"Oh, good idea," Batgirl snickered to her partner.

"Great minds," Red Robin smirked.

The man nearest Batgirl closed in, throwing a punch at the girl. She ducked, falling to her knees and whipping her staff around to smack him in the side. She jumped up, punching upward and landing him in the jaw. Another nearby man threw a punch at Red Robin, who simply ducked, hitting the man in the chin with his bo staff. The man fell back, knocking into another who proceeded to lunge at Red Robin. He stepped out of the way, simply dodging the oncoming attack and put his bo staff back in his utility belt.

"You deal with them. I'll get their leader," he turned his attention to Batgirl before ducking and swerving around the attackers, his sight set on the man in the mask. The man turned, darting up the stairs and into the auditorium. Red Robin on his tail, he threw a disk to the back of the man's leg, knocking him onto the ground. His hands grabbed at his handcuffs in his utility belt, immediately wrapping them around the wrists of the man.

"That was too easy. You aren't on it, are you?"

"No dealer gets high on his own supply," the man chuckled.

Red Robin pulled him up, spinning him around to face him. He grabbed at the mask and pulled it off.

"That's all this is to you? This isn't average drug peddling, this isn't even _heroin._ Where did you get the venom?"

"That I can't say."

Red Robin took his free hand, pressing it up against his earpiece.

"Oracle, you got an ID?"

"Got it," Oracle's soft voice responded immediately. "His name is Tyler West. Gotham University student, but I suspect you already know that. Average grades and no reports of illegal activity. Do you really think he's the leader?"

"No," he eyed the man in front of him. "I think he's a pawn."

* * *

Batgirl took a sip of her now-cold coffee, letting a sigh escape from her lips. Up the road, the lights of police cars flash against the snow, and from her seat on the rooftop, she could see the officers questioning the people from the boiler room.

"I'm sorry I had to leave you to fight them," Red Robin spoke after taking a drink from his own coffee.

"Don't apologize to me," her shoulders shrugged as she shot a smile to her partner. "I'm the one who won the fight, anyway."

Red Robin chuckled.

"So, what now?" Batgirl turned a curious expression to him, observing him as he thought.

"We should go back to the Batcave, we'll find extra help there." Batgirl nodded in agreement, focusing her attention on the ground again.

"Race you there?" She turned to face Red Robin again, only to find him missing. She looked up, watching him grapple off toward Wayne Manor. She scrambled to pull herself up, shooting her grapple in the same direction. "That's not fair!"


End file.
